Masculin, Feminin et L-Ecriture Litteraire et Cinematographique Burkinabe: Double Emergence, Double Affirmation Dans L'Ombre de la Revolution Sankariste.

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on the emergence of masculine and feminine spaces within the literature and cinema of Burkina Faso from the 1980s to the present. It examines how the Burkinabè revolution of 1983 led by Thomas Sankara, was the primary factor in the development of a literature and cinema and how it shaped the representation of both men and women through an analysis of three novels and a film: La faute et le pardon by Youssouf Savadogo, Devoir de cuissage by Hadiza Sanoussi, Les carnets secrets d’une fille de joie by Patrick G. Ilboudo, and Idrissa Ouédraogo’s film Tilai. By situating the sankarist revolution at the center and as a key point, my entire study is articulated around it and functions as a system that unfolds in four parts. That is why this dissertation is structured as an assemblage in which each part is not only embedded in the social political context, but also in the other parts. The first chapter focuses on the emergence of the Burkinabè literature and cinema, the second chapter on the emergence of the Burkinabè nation-state building, the third chapter on the emergence of a “new” Burkinabè woman and finally the fourth chapter focuses on the impact of the revolution on the social interaction between men and women. In my thesis, I explore how the revolution has impacted the media and the ideas it conveys in those narratives with regard to the status of women and men. This study is also an attempt to demonstrate how a major political event became a site of convergence for these works.